Feeling The Heat

by Rhonda Nelson

  Babies tended to do that.

  Karen gasped and her gaze flew to Georgia’s. “It’s positive,” she breathed, her face wreathed in a joyous smile, dimples winking in both cheeks.

  “It’s positive,” Georgia repeated faintly. She dropped onto the toilet seat and stared at the wall.

  Beaming, Karen bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. “It’s positive!” she squealed. “You’re pregnant! Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod! I’m going to be an honorary aunt—maybe a real one if your brother comes around,” she added.

  She and Linc might have called it quits, but surprisingly Jack and Karen had been seeing each other ever since Jack had asked Karen to spy for him. Funny how things had worked out, Georgia thought, happy for her friend.

  “We’re going to have a baby,” Karen breathed, still talking more to herself than Georgia. “We’re going to decorate a nursery and buy little bootees.” She sighed, her eyes watering. “Oh, Georgia. I’m so happy for you.” She paused. “Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

  “We used protection,” she said dimly, still trying to absorb the fact that she was pregnant. With Linc Stone’s baby. “I’m not supposed to be pregnant.”

  “Protection isn’t foolproof, as evidenced by the fact that you are going to have a baby,” Karen said happily, gesturing toward the test. She suddenly frowned. “You’ve always said you wanted kids. You’re happy, right?”

  She was more than happy, she was ecstatic. She was just a little shell-shocked. She’d assumed that she’d missed the last couple of periods because she’d been an emotional wreck—being pregnant had never occurred to her. Then this morning her biscuit and jam had made an encore appearance and she’d noticed a tenderness in her breasts that hadn’t ever been there before. She’d bought the test more as a whim than anything else and yet…she was pregnant.

  Immediately an image of a little boy with espresso curls and mossy green eyes leaped into her mind and a slow, tremulous smile slid over her lips. Tears welled in her eyes.

  “Karen,” she said wonderingly. “I’m going to have a baby.” She heard the bell ring, signaling a customer had entered the store, but she didn’t have the presence of mind to deal with someone else’s joy at the moment. She wanted to savor her own. She’d learned that from Linc, if nothing else.

  A baby.

  His baby.

  “What are you going to do about Linc?” Karen asked as though reading her mind.

  There was no question about that. “I’ll have to tell him.”

  Frankly, she didn’t know how he’d react. She was assuming that since he never wanted to marry he never wanted kids, but wanted or not, she was having this baby. She would tell him, of course, because it was the right thing to do, but she wouldn’t expect anything out of him and certainly wouldn’t make any demands. She was fully capable of supporting a child on her own and, as far as a male influence went, she had Jack. It might not be the ideal situation, but it was the one she had. She would make it work.

  Besides, considering that Linc Stone would forever own her heart, she knew she had a precious little shot of ever getting it back to give to someone else. She rubbed her hand over her belly where their baby currently grew and felt tears burn the backs of her lids and a lump the size of a plum well in her throat.

  She wouldn’t have Linc—hadn’t heard from him since he’d pulled out of driveway more than two months ago—but at least she’d have a little part of him.

  “A customer came in,” Georgia said. “Do you think you could go check on them? I want a few minutes to myself to sort of let this sink in.”

  Karen hugged her tight. “Sure.”

  Okay, Georgia thought, immediately going into list-making mode. First things first. She’d have to make an appointment with an OB. She needed to get on some vitamin supplements. Then there was life insur—

  “Georgia, could you come out here a minute, please?” Karen called, her voice curiously strangled.

  Dammit, she’d just asked for a few minutes. Karen had been so good about handling things over the past couple of months. Georgia stood and wiped a little mascara from beneath her eye. She’d picked a damned annoying time to revert to her old habits.

  “It’s important,” Karen called again, as though reading her mind. “Otherwise I wouldn’t bother you.”

  It had better be important, Georgia thought, striding into the showroom. Her gaze landed on Linc and she drew up short. Emotion broadsided her and her body went into numb shakes on the inside, rattling her to the core. Those long locks definitely hadn’t seen a pair of scissors since she’d last seen him, and there was a weariness around those beautiful, woefully familiar eyes that tugged at her heartstrings. What was he doing here? she wondered. Why now, of all times?

  Karen’s gaze darted between the two of them and she wore a smile that bordered on euphoric.

  “Hey, Trouble,” he said, his gaze drifting all over her, seemingly drinking her in. He looked tired, but happy, strained and just a little bit…scared.

  “What are you doing here?” she breathed, stunned, giving voice to the question. Her heart jumped into her already crowded throat and her pulse triple-timed it in her veins. What little moisture she had in her mouth instantly vanished.

  “I brought you a present.”

  She frowned. “A present?”

  Ducking to avoid the tulle hanging from the ceiling Linc made his way toward her. “It’s taken three months, hardly the year and half that your father looked for it, but—” he withdrew her mother’s ring from his pocket, making her breath catch and a startled gasp slip from her mouth “—I finally found it.”

  Her vision blurred with tears, Georgia carefully took the ring from his fingers and inspected the stone. Just as flawed as she remembered, but perfect all the same. Her gaze flew to Linc’s. “How did you do this? Where did you find it?”

  Linc shoved his hands into his pockets. “Carter sold it to a guy on Union Avenue. Operating on the assumption that he was a local who was in the area for business—and that he’d be back every day—I kept going back and asking questions. I finally found him and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

  Sweet God in heaven, she thought, her heart bursting with joy. He’d gone back and looked for it. She had, too, but had clearly been going to the wrong area. And he was here, with the ring, in her shop. A place she never imagined to see him again.

  Her shimmering gaze tangled with his. “I—I can’t believe you did this for me.”

  He shifted, looked away, then those mossy green eyes caught hers once more. “Funny what a guy’ll do for love, eh?”

  Karen squealed from her post behind the counter.

  “A guy’ll do for love?” Was he saying what she thought he was saying?

  “Yeah. If you’d give that ring back for a second, I’ve got plans for it.”

  Intrigued, Georgia cocked her head, but handed it over all the same. He’d given it to her once, after all. She knew she could trust him to give it back.

  Smiling, Linc went down on bended knee, looked up at her and cleared his throat. “Georgia Hart, I love you. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?” He jerked his head toward the front window and his lips slid into that woefully familiar, wicked endearing grin. “And would you please wear that dress to our wedding because I’ve been imagining you in it since the first moment I stepped foot in this store.”

  Confused, she felt a line emerge between her brows. He’d been imagining her in it since—Her racing heart did a little figure eight in her chest and a smile bloomed across her lips. “That’s why you wouldn’t come back here?” she asked. “That’s why you avoided the store?”

  Linc ducked his head. “I’m not proud,” he admitted. “But I’ve seen the error of my ways.”

  “B-but I haven’t heard from you. You haven’t so much as called me.”

  “That’s because I was looking for the ring, planning this special moment,” he said, his teeth partially gritted. “And you
’re arguing. Have you noticed that I am actually on my knee? Do you see that? I’ve made a proper proposal and you haven’t had the decency to answer me yet?”

  “Yes, I see it. I’m just trying to decide if I want to be pissed off at you or not.”

  “How about deciding if you want to marry me or not, Trouble,” he said, exasperated. “After all, that’s why I’m here.”

  “Well, of course I want to marry you. But I can still be pissed off.”

  A grin easing over his face, Linc stood and wrapped his arms around her, then kissed her until her knees wobbled. Hot, wild, thrilling and familiar. Hers. He carefully slipped the ring on to her finger. “I don’t doubt that one bit.”

  She chuckled against his mouth. “Careful, dickwad, we don’t want to start out our engagement in a fight.”

  Linc heaved a long-suffering sigh. “What have I told you about that nickname?”

  “That you don’t like it.”

  “Right. Do you think you could come up with something a little more flattering?”

  Smiling, Georgia drew back and looked up at him. Excitement and joy tangled inside her. “How about Daddy?”

  He blinked. “Daddy? But—” His eyes widened. “You’re—”

  “She is!” Karen exclaimed, evidently unable to control herself.

  Another grin slid over his lips and he dropped his forehead against hers. “We’ve got to do something about her.”

  “Forget about her,” Georgia said, her body going into a slow simmer. “Let’s do something about us.”

  Linc grinned again, then bent his head and brushed a promising kiss over her lips. “Just follow my lead, sweetheart. Just follow my lead.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-0806-7

  FEELING THE HEAT

  Copyright © 2007 by Rhonda Nelson.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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